The present invention relates generally to the field of search engine optimization, and more specifically to filtering search results provided by search engines.
Search engine optimization is the process of increasing the visibility of certain non-paid search results. Typically, non-paid results refer to search results which are generated by the search engine, as opposed to those results which third parties pay the search engine to display. There are a number of methods that search engines employ in order to increase the visibility of search results that are most relevant to a given query. In general, a “query” refers to a request for information posed to a search tool. In general, a “search tool” is a program used to identify items in a database that correspond to a query. For example, a search tool can be a web search engine that receives a query and returns information found on the web. In some instances, optimization methods employed by a search engine include selecting search results that contain text matching the query. In other instances, a search engine can prioritize search results from sources on the web it considers trustworthy.